Dennis Reinbold was running his Tonkas on a dirt pile in the back yard when another lad was sent over to join in while the adults conducted their business.
“Al Unser and Bobby Unser came by to talk with ‘Pop,’ ’’ Reinbold says, referring to his maternal grandfather. “They were blowing motors at a high rate back then in the early ‘70s. They brought this kid along and we played in the dirt. It turns out it was Al (Unser) Jr. It’s kind of funny how things come around; Al Jr. winds up driving for us at the Indy 500 (in 2006).
“That day at the house is kind of a summary of who he was. He had a sign that said when all else fails ask Pop. I have a lot of great memories of Pop.”
Floyd “Pop” Dreyer -- motorcycle racer, race car builder, designer, fabricator, BMW and Honda motorcycle dealer and a whole lot more – will join 1985 Indianapolis 500 winner Danny Sullivan and five others in being inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America on Aug. 29. The posthumous honor follows his induction into the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame and National Sprint Car Hall of Fame.
Click it: Sullivan talks about his Hall of Fame election
Yes, Pop, was unique, and Reinbold, who carries on the surname in the IZOD IndyCar Series team he co-owns with Robbie Buhl (Dreyer & Reinbold Racing) learned about business and life by his side. He died Feb. 25, 1989.
“You kind of had to earn his respect and that was with hard work,” said Reinbold, who will present Dreyer for induction at the ceremony in Detroit. “I started mowing his grass and I got closer and closer to him as I grew. Then I came to realize some of the amazing craftsmanship he possessed and his skills and all the people who sought him out for advice. There was a long line of people every day and he would puff on his pipe and talk with everyone. He could do about anything; fix about anything. He just enjoyed it, and we had big family gatherings that he enjoyed.
“He had a racetrack near Mount Meridian (in south-central Indiana). It was a quarter-mile scramble track and in the summer as the racers would pack up and leave my cousins and I would pile onto the track with our motorcycles. We just kind of grew up on motorcycles and big family functions and hosting the race events. He was always on his bulldozer and road grader out manicuring the track. He called it a woods run; it was before motocross. It was a natural terrain and difficult course with lots of trees around that occasionally my cousins and I would fly off and hit.”
Pop was born on Nov. 30, 1898, in Chillicothe, Ohio, and raised on a farm near Youngstown. In his teens, an older brother purchased a motorcycle that evolved into quite an adventure for Pop. Through riding the cycle, he developed skills and started working part-time at a dealership. That led to sidecar racing, and when Pop learned that prize money was available he struck out on his own.
Signed by the Flexible Sidecar Company of Loudonville, Ohio, he proceeded to win national races in the late 1910s and early 1920s (riding an Indian motorcycle). He retired from the dangerous sport in 1923 after recovering from a broken back and, moving to Indianapolis with his wife and three children, landed a job as a welder for the Duesenberg Automobile and Motors Company.
“He was at Duesenberg until they shut down. They couldn’t pay him his last salary but he finished his work anyway,” Reinbold says. “From there he did some work with Stutz and started building his own race cars – sprints and midgets. He didn’t have serial numbers on any so nobody knows how many he made. Then he focused on Midgets and became the grandfather – Pop – of midgets. He also looked like Popeye – big forearms, balding, always had a pipe.
“He made single-cylinder-powered kids cars called DREYERettes and took out an ad in Popular Mechanics. He would ship these kits all over the country and made one for Shirley Temple. Nationally, he got some acclaim and that’s how he got through the Depression.”
Pop’s business interests also included the manufacture of race car components, and he’s recognized as a pioneer in the areas of lightweight magnesium wheels, driver headrests and overhead conversions for Ford blocks. Two of his sprint cars won championships (1938 AAA Eastern title with Duke Nalon driving; 1949 AAA Midwestern title with Jackie Holmes driving). Among his work in the 1940s, Pop manufactured manifolds for aircraft engines through the Allison division of General Motors.
In 1953, Pop opened a BMW motorcycle dealership in Indianapolis. Six years later, he added Honda to his line, becoming the first Honda dealership east of the Mississippi River.
Reinbold says that in March 1968 his grandfather made a call to the BMW factory “and pretty soon we’re taking the chain-link fence down in our back yard and here’s five BMWs coming off a truck.
“So my mom and dad decided to get in the car business; it was a toss-up between that and the laundry business. The respect for him is why my parents named our company Dreyer & Reinbold.”
The same holds true for the racing outfit, which began full-time IZOD IndyCar Series competition in 2000 by winning the season’s first event with Buhl driving. This season, veteran Indy car competitor Oriol Servia is behind the wheel of the No. 22 entry.
“When we formed the racing team I definitely wanted to keep the name Dreyer to perpetuate his legacy and keep him by my side as we went IndyCar racing,” Dreyer said. “He was unassuming, treated everyone with respect. He was quite an individual.”
Tickets for the 24th Motorsports Hall of Fame induction ceremony can be purchased by calling 248-349-7223 or at www.mshf.com. David Hobbs, a 2009 inductee into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in the Sports Car category and now a broadcaster, will be the emcee.
